(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a master-slave manipulator system.
(2) Description of Related Art
There have been developed a lot of master-slave manipulator systems structured such that an operator operates an operation input device, and a manipulator operates in accordance with the operation.
As a conventional master-slave manipulator system, there can be listed up JP-B2-7-90492 (patent document 1), JP-B2-3583777 (patent document 2), WO/00/60521 (patent document 3) and the like.
The patent document 1 is structured such as to detect a direction of an optical axis of a camera, and always bring a traveling direction of a manipulator main body within a screen into line with an operating direction of the operation input device regardless of a movement of a view point in accordance with a visual sense coordinate transformation.
Further, the patent document 2 is structured such as to contrive a positional relation among a manipulator, a camera, a monitor, an operator and an operation input device so as to make coordinate systems substantially the same.
Further, the patent document 3 defines positions of a monitor and an operation input device, and achieves a master-slave operation control on the basis of a camera coordinate.
In the master-slave manipulator system, in general, the operator frequently operates the operation input device from a position which is away from the manipulator so as to move the manipulator. Accordingly, the operator can operate while viewing the image of the manipulator imaged by the camera on the monitor. In this case, in a relevant coordinate system, there are mixed several coordinate systems such as a coordinate system of the manipulator, a coordinate system of the camera, a coordinate system on the monitor, a coordinate system of the operation input device, a coordinate system of the operator and the like.
Accordingly, it is necessary to understand a relation between the coordinate systems and be accustomed to an operating method at a time when the operator carries out the operation, and the operation is hard to be said as an intuitive operation. Particularly, in the case of carrying out a command about an orientation by the operation input device as well as commanding a position of a leading end of the manipulator, a lot of degrees of freedom are operated, and there is a problem that the operator is hard to operate.
Further, in the case of operating from a state in which an orientation of an end point portion of the manipulator is different from an orientation of the operation input device, the operator is hard to understand a correspondence of the commanding direction of the position and the orientation and a long time is necessary for being accustomed thereto.
On the contrary, there can be considered to control such that the orientation of the end point portion of the manipulator always comes into line with the orientation of the operation input device by installing an actuator in the operation input device. However, in this method, there is a case that such a position and orientation that the manipulator is easily actuated, however, a wrist of the operator operating the operation input device is hard to work is generated. Further, in the case that one operator operates a plurality of manipulators, it is necessary to prepare a plurality of operation input devices which correspond to all the orientations of a plurality of manipulators, so that there is generated a problem that the apparatus is enlarged in size and the operation is hard to be carried out. Accordingly, there has been known that it is necessary to provide a method capable of intuitively carrying out the operation even if the orientation of the manipulator is different from the orientation of the operation input device.
These problems remarkably appear particularly at a time of using a camera and a monitor capable of achieving a three-dimensional stereoscopic vision. The stereoscopic vision monitor displays a working area and the manipulator in a three-dimensional manner, however, in the case that the three-dimensional display is offset from a real thing in the position and orientation, there is a case that a disturbance is applied to the operator. On the contrary, these problems can be solved by defining an installed orientation of the stereoscopic vision monitor in such a manner as to be displayed by the same orientation as the actual working area or arranging the operation input device behind the stereoscopic vision monitor, in accordance with a method of bringing an orientation of an operation input device operation interface into line with an orientation of the end effector reflected on the stereoscopic vision monitor. However, the positions and orientations of the monitor and the operation input device are defined, and it is hard to freely arrange and downsize.
In this case, the patent document 1 is structured such that the moving direction within the monitor screen comes into line with the moving direction of the operation input device with regard to the command of the position, however, the orientation of the manipulator end point has not been considered. Further, in the patent document 2 and the patent document 3, the layout of the monitor and the operation input device is limited, and it is hard to freely arrange.